Human fishing fleets have officially replaced sharks and whales as the primary apex predators of the Indian Ocean.
April 25, 2026
Original Paper
Ecosystem structure and fishing impacts in the oceanic pelagic tropical Indian Ocean: a basin-scale food-web model to inform regional fisheries management
SSRN · 6636676
The Takeaway
A massive new model of the ocean food web shows that the impact of industrial fishing has fundamentally shifted how the ecosystem works. Humans are no longer just taking some fish, we are now the dominant biological force that dictates which species survive and which fail. We exert more competitive pressure on the ocean food supply than any other creature in history. This shift has changed the physical structure of the basin scale ecosystem, forcing wild predators to compete with ships for survival. This quantification of our ecological footprint marks a turning point where we have become a permanent part of the ocean biological hierarchy. Our machines are now the top of the food chain.
From the abstract
The long-term sustainability of fisheries and marine ecosystems increasingly requires management approaches that account for ecosystem interactions, cumulative pressures, and governance-level trade-offs among fisheries. In the Indian Ocean, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) has committed to operationalise the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM), yet effective implementation requires quantitative tools capable of translating and integrating ecosystem principles into operationa